The Tuesday WAFL: West Perth not the first WAFL team in financial trouble

VideoSouth Fremantle belted a sorry West Perth by 98 points to open their finals campaign on a high.

East Perth were in trouble in 1983.

The Royals had just lost more than $100,000, had debts of more than $300,000, some players were on sky-high wages and the club was about to fall off a cliff.

Enter tough guy Mal Atwell, a ferocious figure on the field in the 1950s and 60s and no shrinking violet off it.

He became president and one of his first acts was to have a fire sale to raise enough cash to keep the club alive.

Craig Edwards, John Hayes and Paul Arnold were sold off to South Fremantle, Steve Curtis unloaded to Port Adelaide for a reputed $100,000, Larry Kickett and John Scott switched to Claremont and Chris Allen sent off to Swan Districts.

The remaining players took a 25% pay cut.

The Royals battled on the field in the aftermath of the scorched earth policy but the club remained alive.

Two decades later and Swan District came perilously close to keeling over.

The club spent two years at the bottom of the ladder, just avoiding a winless season in 2002, and scrounged, begged, borrowed and scraped to avoid collapse.

Numerous WAFL supporters, many of whom hated Swans from the soles of their feet up and secretly or not so secretly relished the club’s plight, dipped into their hard-earnt to help the Black Ducks keep swimming.

It wasn’t easy but all their creditors were paid.

South Fremantle this decade. Claremont once or twice in their history. Subiaco, who used to walk a blanket around the ground at home game for essential donations from the crowd, in the days before the arrival of the AFL at Subiaco Oval opened their own private cash pipeline. Peel in their early days and some later ones.

All these clubs faced financial crises that threatened their very existence.

Yet they all found a way to survive, often by appealing to the goodwill of well-heeled supporters and making tough decisions today to ensure there was a tomorrow.

And all their creditors were paid.

So to West Perth.

Today their creditors will be offered 4c in the dollar as part of a settlement scheme designed to get the club back on its financial feet.

VenuesWest had already accepted the deal and the Australian Tax Office is sure to do likewise.

That’s half the $790,000 owed by West Perth with the two government entities likely to consider the sum a mere drop in the bucket of their overall activities.

But that also means that the poor saps responsible for supplying footies and jumpers, or the tradies who do all the little and no-so little jobs required to keep a facility running, will get just 4c for every dollar they are owed.

That’s $400 on a $10,000 job or $2800 for the supplier owed $70,000 for jumpers and other gear.

No wonder those other clubs, those who weathered their storms and called in favours and knocked on doors and suffered the heartache of selling off favourite sons, are so angry.

VideoClaremont overcame a spirited second-half fightback from East Perth to prevail by 28 points.

They did the hard yards to keep their clubs alive. They paid their creditors who supplied them in good faith.

The Falcons actually have a bit of dough. They have raised $200,000 in the past month but that won’t be going to any creditors.

That cash is quarantined in a foundation and will not be withdrawn until the administrators leave with their $85,000 cheque for a clean-up job done neatly and efficiently and dispassionately.

Could West Perth have seen off the crisis and found the cash needed to pay their bills?

It is impossible to know and irrelevant once their creditors meet this afternoon.

Yes, it is a tough economy but the Falcons appear to have taken their eyes off the ball in recent years as far as bringing in the sponsors and benefactors required to keep any ambitious sporting organisation afloat.

If $200,000 could be raised in a month, how much more could have been raised over the past few years?

How many creditors could have been paid?

West Perth have made their call, a decision also made in good faith and no doubt with the best interests and future of the club in mind.

No one wants to see the demise of WA’s oldest football club, even the East Perth fans who love to hate them, but there will be some people hurting hard today after putting their faith in the Falcons.

Tuesday hero

Mason Shaw has spent the past three years in the shadow of South Fremantle spearhead Ben Saunders but, with the full-forward out of action, is now relishing his chance on centre stage. A running machine whose diligence and durability is underlined by his 65 consecutive matches since returning from Port Adelaide, Shaw has never played better than in the past few weeks. And his kicking for goal is in rare air with 7.0, 5.0 and 6.0 in his past three outings. It is no coincidence that Shaw’s kicking improved after WA great John Todd took him under his wing recently. Subiaco are deserved flag favourites after their unbeaten season but South will challenge hard if their Shaw thing keeps starring.